Today we continued our work with the Health and Human Services sector with a visit to the West Valley Community Services. There I met a familiar face, my own auntie and Executive Director Naomi Nakano-Matsumoto. Right when we walked in the door, I was overwhelmed by how busy the organization was at 10 in the morning. Auntie Naomi talked to us about how West Valley was a “basic needs” organization and the different services they offer. I learned that they focus their service on those homeless who just need help getting back on track for a little while, such as after a divorce or layoff, rather than those who have formed more of a permanent social living environment on the streets. They help these people out with more of one-time incidents, like a car accident that prevents a person from getting to work. WVCS would then investigate to make sure the situation is legitimate and help them out by paying the car company rather than the individual.
Another thing that West Valley has is their affordable housing program. They own several apartments connected to the building and a few transitional townhomes and homes around the area. All of these homes are sold at BMR, or below market rate, so that those who might not otherwise be able to afford a house can find a home. While new contractors begin to build more housing around the area they are also required sell a certain percent of their houses at BMR, otherwise they will have to pay a fine. This requirement helps make sure that there is affordable housing available and West Valley does its best to house those who are stable and ready to own a home.
They also partner with Second Harvest Food Bank and work with local grocery stores providing a wide variety of food stored to be given out to those in need. Many of the grocery stores have an “all or nothing” policy, meaning that the agency must take all the food they give or nothing at all. So although West Valley strives to provide a healthy and nutritious environment because of the correlation between poverty and obesity, they do in fact have a lot of unhealthy junk food on hand. One thing in particular that I found interesting was that they let people come in and shop through their food pantry. Each shelf and bin was labeled with a number representing how many items they were allowed to take depending on their family size. It showed that West Valley takes pride in letting individuals choose depending on the needs of their families and in not wasting food, as much would be just thrown out if the food was just bagged and sent out.
West Valley Community Services is run by mostly the hundreds of volunteers that come out and help each day. It is also another organization that is not an ethnic-based service center. Auntie Naomi has long resume of different organizations that she’s worked for and boards that she’s served on (including being named Women of Year last year). Most of the organizations that she worked for were Asian American focused, unlike West Valley Community Services. One thing that she said that was missing here was the “Cultural Competency.” Although they do have various multi-lingual speakers working, there is definitely that difference in culture when it comes to working with and bringing this altogether. Sometimes people may not know what the politically correct term to use, especially when dealing with race and ethnicity. Working with difference ages, genders, and races has forced her to learn how to break down these barriers in order for their organization to work together successfully.
The question for this week is: What are the social services issues facing Nikkei in our community? After visiting the different organizations this week that serve both the wider community and those that are ethnically based, we can see how there is a great need for financial and community support to keep these services running. People may assume that Japanese-American in our community are not poor and therefore are not in need of these services, however Auntie Naomi said that there is a number of Nikkei that come into WVCS everyday, in a wide range of ages, men and women. To answer the question, I’m not quite sure yet what social services issues, if any, face the Nikkei community but I know that organizations such as Yu-Ai-Kai, SVCN, AACI, and West Valley are definitely all vital to serving the Japanese-American community and need to be supported.
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